UNITED NATIONS: Just Beginning

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Final Cheers. When the Assembly gathered again on Saturday, the Arabs tried one last time to defeat the partition plan. Lebanon's soft-spoken Camille Chamoun proposed a federal union of Palestine including both Arab and Jewish elements.

Syria's white-thatched Faris el Khoury urged more delay to consider Chamoun's plan. When the galleries hissed, Khoury charged that U.S. Jews, who "comprise only one-thirtieth of the American population," were trying to "intimidate the United Nations . . . and hiss the speakers to prove they are influential here." The galleries hissed louder, and Aranha rapped for order.

In speeches which sounded remarkably alike, U.S. Delegate Johnson and Russia's Gromyko opposed further delay. The Arab proposal, said Gromyko, "added no novel element to the situation."

The crowd was silent as Aranha called for a vote. But once more emotions erupted, this time in cheers and applause, as France's Parodi voted "Oui" and removed the last doubt about the outcome. Of the countries normally lined up with the U.S., Greece (which has many rich sons in Moslem Egypt) voted no. Of the Russian satellites, Yugoslavia (mindful of her Moslem puppet state, Albania) abstained. All Asian countries either voted no (including India) or abstained (including China).

Seven Dissents. After the vote was announced, the six Arab delegations (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen) arose and strode out of the Assembly chamber. Pakistan's delegation soon followed. The U.N. Charter, said an Arab delegate, is dead. "Not of a natural death—it was murdered," added Syria's Faris el Khoury. The U.N. decision, he said, "will establish a Jewish patrol at the door of Asia. The Arabs and the Asiatics will not accept it." All Arab delegations announced that they would boycott the partition plan, have nothing more to do with U.N. discussions of Palestine. The Assembly, nevertheless, voted $2,000,000 and approved a five-nation board (Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Panama, Bolivia and the Philippines) to carry out the partition plan by Oct. 1, 1948. U.N. had turned a corner by taking direct responsibility for one of the world's most troublesome problems. It had acted. Whether or not it had acted wisely was another question.